Bon Temps, Louisiana, is a town where the supernatural hides behind ordinary faces. Vampires have come out of the coffin, but humans still don't understand just how many other creatures live among them. When a powerful empath moves to Louisiana hoping for a quiet new beginning, they quickly discover that the town is anything but ordinary. Their ability to sense emotions becomes overwhelming around vampires, whose minds they cannot read but whose emotions they can feel—and their arrival soon attracts the attention of several supernatural residents who wonder exactly what this mysterious newcomer is capable of.